Bondage 101 Guide: Tactics

Style Guide: Aesthetic Rigs & Practical Rigs

Once you start getting more into bondage, you’ll realize that there are more types of bondage than simply, “One person ties up another and does things to them while they’re helpless.”

There are four main types of bondage that we’re going to be looking at. They are: restraining, functional, decorative, and supportive (suspending).

Restraining Bondage

Restraining bondage has the largest majority of practitioners. This kind of bondage is the kind that most people think of when they think of bondage or people who practice bondage.

Restraining bondage is the kind that limits someone’s movements or renders them helpless.

Tying someone’s hands qualifies as restraining bondage. So does tying someone to the bed. This type of bondage is the kind most often practiced by beginners, but not every person who practices restraining bondage is a beginner or is just learning.

The difference between the Western style of restraining bondage and the Japanese style of restraining bondage is rather impressive. Western style bondage usually blocks access to some body parts. While this may leave a submissive vulnerable in some ways, it also leaves them inaccessible to their Dominant.

Japanese-style restraint bondage doesn’t function this way. It typically does not block access to any body parts for the rigger, which is why this type of bondage is so common lately.

Functional Bondage

Functional ties are meant to support other ties, or replace items. This means that they are not just ropes, and not just meant to restrain, but they are actually supposed to do something.

For example, there is a knot called the Hip Harness, which functions as a way to support the person being suspended in a side suspension. The Bit Gag is another kind of functional bondage, which features a part of the bondage being used as a gag, which is easily incorporated into the rest of the rig.

Shibari, Japanese rope bondage, frequently functions as functional bondage as well as restraining bondage. It does this by placing certain knots in the rope on pleasurable pressure points.

Decorative Bondage

It is important to be specific when mentioning decorative bondage, because many types of bondage ties are nice to look at, without being expressly for the purpose of decoration.

For example, The Dragonfly is a kind of decorative bondage that is lovely to look at, but is also restraining and can function in both ways (and as a side note, it is very nice to look at, but it takes a very long time to rig up for beginners at bondage).

Many kinds of decorative bondage actually replace clothing, and some are designed to be worn under clothing. Bras and corsets are the most common kinds of clothing items that are replaced.

Accordingly, the Corset Tie and Zipper Tie have been developed for this type of bondage. In this way, these types are not just decorative, but also functional bondage, since they replace items (such as bras and corsets).

Suspension Bondage

If you think this might be exactly what it sounds like, you’re correct. Suspension bondage is some of the most beautiful and dramatic, but also some of the most high-risk if you’re not entirely sure what you’re doing.

First of all, suspension bondage requires a harness, which can be used to actually suspend a person by supporting his or her full weight all the way or part of the way off of the ground.

Suspension bondage should never be used by a beginner rigger.

Yes, it is both striking and gorgeous, but you must think of your partner’s health first. There is a very real danger that you could cause nerve damage by rigging up a faulty suspension harness.

Since suspension harnesses are also a form of restraining bondage, this is another kind of bondage you should never try if you cannot be in the room with your partner at all times. No, you cannot even leave to get a drink of water even once.

All kinds of bondage carry some risk, and all carry some huge rewards. Try out what you might like, but keep your partner’s safety in mind above all else.